“I think it behooves us and our Korean allies not to be charmed and consider North Korea for the regime it is and to deal with it on the basis of fact and not charm,” Harris said, adding he believes Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, is “ideally positioned to do that and that he views this charm offensive through clear eyes.”

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Meanwhile, a North Korean defector said Kim Jong-Un is undertaking a charm offensive in the South because he fears the United States will launch a preventative strike on the North.

“Kim Jong-Un is afraid that the U.S. will launch a preventative strike, and he is trying to buy time to complete his nuclear and missile programs,” Ri Jong-Ho, who defected from the North in 2014 and currently resides in the U.S., said at a Feb. 14 forum at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.

Ri, a former ruling party official who worked for three decades in Office 39 of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said “Kim Jong-Un is struggling under the strongest-yet sanctions and military and diplomatic pressure, so he is trying to improve the situation by putting on a false front.”